Silicon semiconductor devices have become nearly ubiquitous in society. They can be found in portable devices such as MP3 players, watches, cell phones, etc. They can be found in most vehicles. They can be found in the workplace in computers, PDAs, telephone systems, elevators, and in numerous other products. They can also be found in homes in microwaves, TVs, radios, refrigerators, toys, just to name a few. The ever increasing presence of silicon chips makes it increasingly important to find new ways to manufacture silicon chips for less.
Currently monosilane is used in the manufacture of silicon chips and generally in making materials having films of polycrystalline silicon, epitaxial silicon or amorphous silicon. The monosilane is decomposed at very high temperatures. Because higher silanes including disilane and trisilane are more easily decomposed than monosilane and are low in loss by evaporation during film formation, it is possible to attain a decrease in the film forming temperature, an improvement in the film forming rate and an increase in the formed film yield by using higher silanes. Thus a need exists to manufacture higher silanes cheaply and in large amounts.
Higher silanes can be manufactured by pyrolysis. However at the high temperatures used for pyrolysis much of the monosilane is converted into elemental silicon, a useless byproduct. Hence, a need exists for a method of making higher silanes with less waste.
The manufacture of higher silanes by pyrolysis also creates undesirable other silanes. Silicon chip manufacturing requires a very high purity feed. Removing large quantities of impurities wastes reactants and desired products and requires expensive purification. This wastes starting material and requires additional purification. Thus, a need exists for a method creating less impurities.